Port of Beira aggressively pursues Zim business

The port of Beira is claiming that Zimbabwean exporters and importers can save 30% or more on transport costs by using the port in preference to Durban. “Zimbabwe is losing a lot of money by using the longer route to Durban instead of Beira which is 559km away from Harare. There is always a cost per kilometre,” Cornelder marketing director Felix Machadu is reported to have told a stakeholder workshop in Zimbabwe late in 2014. Cornelder, which operates the port of Beira, plans to continue investing in the port in order to improve efficiencies. Forwarders and freight companies interviewed in Zimbabwe by FTW all agreed that volumes through the port were increasing and that it was becoming more efficient. Volumes are, however, way off their peak of 600 trucks a day – the throughput before the port went into decline during the Mozambican civil war. Cornelder took over the running of the port in October 1998. It is estimated that the route accommodates 100 trucks a day out of Zimbabwe at present. INSERT & CAPTION Zimbabwe is losing a lot of money by using the longer route to Durban instead of Beira. – Felix Machadu